Jokey 'Merchant of Venice' is child's play

CINDY BOYLEPeter Galman strengthens the case for changing the title of "The Merchant of Venice" to "Shylock" at the Actor's Shakespeare Company.

The Merchant of Venice. Where: Actors Shakespeare Company, New Jersey City University, West Side Theatre, 285 West Side Ave., Jersey City. When: Through March 9. Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 3 p.m. How much: $30; $15 students and seniors. Call (866) 811-4111 or visit ascnj.org.

The best that can be said of this "The Merchant of Venice" is that it's excellent children's theater.

Take the teens and tweens to Jersey City, where the Actors Shakespeare Company is producing the Bard's 1596 play. Director Colette Rice turns the comedy in the first act into outright farce. The show is loud, fast and funny -- even in the scenes where it shouldn't be.

That becomes apparent early on, when Antonio agrees to lend Bassanio the money to romance Portia. Most Bassanios are content to show gratitude. Here, Justin Gibbs jumps up and down like Bugs Bunny.

What's worse is that Gibbs plays Bassanio as a fortune hunter. Portia would seem to be better off with either of her other suitors, the Prince of Morocco or the Prince of Aragon -- that is, until Rice unleashes the former as a Middle Eastern caricature and the latter as a Castilian one. James Rana (Morocco) is such a silly twit that he uses up an audience's tolerance for comic relief long before the arrival of Craig Colfelt's Launcelot Gobbo, the real comic relief. Poor Jordan Meadows (Aragon) finds that spectators are all laughed out before he can take the stage and create another fool.

Shakespeare described Gratiano, the play's prize blowhard, as "too wild." Colin Ryan plays him as too too wild, in a hammy way. Nevertheless, with a more demanding director, Ryan would be impressive, for he has excellent elocution that serves Shakespeare's dialogue.

Equally eloquent is Elizabeth Belonzi, who plays Portia with elegance, grace and style. Because of that, her mooning for the smarmy Bassanio is utterly baffling.

Some Shakespearean scholars have argued that the play should be called "Shylock," after the Jewish moneylender, and not for the merchant Antonio. That's certainly substantiated here, for Peter Galman shows a decent man who's at a loss to understand the rampant anti-Semitism. Meanwhile, Terence MacSweeny couldn't possibly be duller as Antonio.

Rice, according to the troupe's web site, prides herself in "recreating the Elizabethan experience" when the "actors addressed the audience directly." Fine, but performances at the Globe Theatre were not in the round, as Rice stages her shows. Because she wants to give every audience member an equal chance at experiencing Shakespeare's dialogue, her actors constantly move, turn and spin at a breakneck pace. It's often been said that baseball pitchers lose 5 to 8 pounds each time they complete a game. These actors must be shedding just as much at every performance.

Luckily, Rice makes dramatic adjustments when the play takes its serious turn in Act Two. Under her direction, Patrick McCarthy's servant Balthasar is too overwhelmed, but she plays the famous courtroom scene honestly. Perhaps her plan is to show kids that Shakespeare can be fun, and, once they're hooked, give them the play as Shakespeare wrote it.

Youngsters might be spurred into a lifelong interest in the Bard, which is commendable. However, that also means that years from now, after they've seen better productions, they'll reminisce, "You know, that 'Merchant of Venice' in Jersey City really wasn't so good."